Bringing Business Sense to the IT World...

ComputerWorld's 2003 Salary Survey is now available online. The detailed numbers are available after a free registration, but here are a couple of points of interest for the SQLTeam community:

Under Staff and Entry-Level Salaries, the average salary + bonus for a Database Administrator was $77,514. However, I find it strange that listed under A Sampling of Other Titles, a Database Manager is listed for $90,584. What's the difference between these two jobs? And even more fun, a Data Warehousing Manager runs for $98,462. There are also listing for Database Analyst, Database Architect, and Database Developer/Modeler.

On the same page as above, Software Developers were listed at $72,518 and Software Engineers at $79,770. Can anyone tell me just what, precisely, is the difference in job duties between these two titles? By the way, Web Developers were only at $59,364.

And no surprise, on the list of Middle Management IT Positions, a Project Manager is listed at $91,822.

My favorite category, Consultant Salaries, shows 44% are self-employed. But the pay rates (for both self-employed and others) vary greatly, with 9% earning only $10-$20 per hour, and 8% earning over $125 per hour. The largest band shows 15% in the $50-$60 per hour range.

So what does it all mean? Two things seem apparent. First, there's still money to be made in technology. Sounds obvious to many of us, but there have been a lot of people screaming that the end is near. And second, as much as I resist it, what you call yourself, and how you market yourself, DOES make a difference.